A shabby view?

Visiting Whitley Bay in North Tyneside today, it was apparent that while there ARE indeed a lot of empty shops – as blogged about previously here – there’s still just about enough going on to keep shoppers interested. I’ll give a fuller rundown of my visit, including my reaction to the newly opened B&M Bargains, in an upcoming post.

Abbey/Santander looks like it's between brands at the moment

You have to feel slightly sorry, however, for the town’s branch of the Abbey bank – soon to be rebranded Santander – which is sandwiched between the horrible-looking former Select store and the boarded-up former T&G Allan shop (both closed earlier this year).

Looking at the bank’s current fascia, above, I did wonder whether it was trying to say something about its immediate surroundings?

2 Responses

Poor Whitley. I love living and shopping here, and just wish more of my neighbours would follow suit. That said, I needed a kettle at short notice on Tuesday morning. The one shop I knew sold them at an uninflated price was shut, forcing me to travel to the nearby Sainsburys.

But we do have joy in the form of Park View – the butchers, the traditional sweet shop (a recent but kost welcome arrival), the cafes, soft furnishing, and on and on.

If only people would get out of their cars and onto their feet and wandered about a bit with their eyes open, they may have a greater chance of survival….

[…] the first property to receive the ‘Shopjacket’ treatment is one that I’d flagged up back in December as particularly ‘horrible-looking’. Consequently, when I had the pleasure a week ago of meeting up with the team responsible […]

Woolworths… from the archives

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Soult's Retail View is a blog by me, Graham Soult, taking a wide-ranging look at the UK retail industry. I'm a retail consultant based in Gateshead - and the person behind CannyInsights.com and CannySites.com - so my posts often (but not always) have a North East flavour. [read more]

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